우리나라 금융분쟁조정제도의 효율성 제고 방안: 영국 금융옴부즈만서비스와의 비교를 중심으로

The Financial Consumer Protection Act was enacted in March 2020 in order to be line with the global trend of strengthening the protection of financial consumers. With the enactment of the Act in Korea, decentralized financial consumer protection system will be integrated, which may provide a foundation for further strengthening the protection of financial consumers’ right and interest. In particular, under the Act, the improvement of the financial dispute settlement system is expected to prevent the system from being deconstructed, and financial consumers can also resolve financial disputes quickly and conveniently. However, the Act does not include the existing improvement plans such as the introduction of unified financial dispute settlement body, the imposition of one-sided legal binding power on the decision of the financial dispute settlement committee, and the introduction of a collective dispute settlement system. In order to make the financial settlement scheme more effective and efficient, it is needed to learn from the Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) in the U.K. FOS was established in 2001, has become the largest financial dispute settlement body in the world, and tries to strengthen the protection of financial consumers’ right and interest. Above all, FOS has secured high credibility by acting as a financial dispute settlement based on expertise, neutrality, fairness and transparency. Also, FOS, working with the Financial Conduct Authority, continuously provides specific guidelines and measures aimed to protect financial consumers who may suffer from financial difficulites due the pandemic. In this sense, in order to find ways of the improvement of the financial dispute settlement scheme in Korea, it may be meaningful for Korea to take lessons from the FOS.